To coin a phrase that I find fitting:
"Don't sweat the petty things.... and don't pet the sweaty things!"
But seriously, many MANY people have truly forgotten how to "stop and smell the roses" as it were.
How many people do you know that can (and will) admire the wonder of a hawk in flight? Being at the right place at the right time to see a "shooting star" or meteor shower? Hearing sounds that are drowned out by our everyday lives, like a hummingbird whizzing by your head or the almost undescernable chirp of a feeding bat in flight?
Heck, how many of our kids have ever seen a firefly, or a grasshopper or cricket up close? Do they even know what they are?
I am the "crazy" uncle in my family because I do these things, and encourage my neices and nephews to join in. Most of them have no problem holding "ickky" things like worms or beetles or frogs because I taught them (what I knew) and helped replace their fears with interest and a desire to learn.
I get a kick out of some of my relatives that are so over-protective, they would willfully deny their child the right to experience things that were once considered a "right of passage" for us.
These same parents will then complain when their kids aren't doing well in school or in social situations.
Well, I rambled on long enough, now it's time to get out and practive what I preach.